The Unstoppable Rise of Music Streaming

Data Journalist Felix Richter reporting for the organisation Statistics who study portal statistics from more than 22,500 sources says that according to Nielsen’s 2018 Year-End Music Report, Americans streamed a record of more than 900 billion songs during the past 12 months. At 611 billion, the number of on-demand audio streams grew by 49 percent in 2018, as subscription-based services such as Spotify and Apple Music grew increasingly popular among American music lovers.

As the following chart illustrates, the number of songs streamed over the internet has increased more than eightfold between 2013 and 2018. Streaming, both ad-supported and subscription-based, now accounts for 65 percent of U.S. music revenues and has long replaced CDs and downloads as the number one way of music consumption.

Interestingly, the chart below also illustrates a shift in music streaming as more people rely on (in many cases) paid audio streaming services instead of free video streaming services such as YouTube to listen to their favorite tunes. Video platforms used to account for the majority of on-demand music streams until 2015. Last year, audio streams accounted for more than two thirds of all on-demand music streams. You will find more infographics at Statista